Category Archives: Burke’s Blog

‘Two Eagles’ takes flight January 8 @ Frankie’s Jazz Club

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Yes, it’ll be the first public performance of Two Eagles ~1000 hours later…or is it ten thousand hours later…Bill has meticulously finished the band arrangement of ‘Two Eagles.’ Can’t wait to hear it played by Bill’s stellar band The Bill Runge Quintet. Miles Black on piano, Bernie Arai on drums, André Lachance on bass and Nick Apivor on the magical vibes. It was a full circle type of experience with this tune. It began on a cold clear February day when I spied two magnificent eagles in the large evergreen just off my building. They were there for hours…just hanging out. I went to the piano and found a figure I liked, and a couple of potential places to go and Two Eagles was born (I kept running back and forth from the piano to the window to the window to see if they were still there.) Last week, Bill was completing the full band arrangement and looked out his window to see two glorious eagles soaring around his building. “We’re not changing the name!” said Bill.

Listen to an excerpt of “Two Eagles”!

Can’t help but get a little excited about stepping out onto the new terrain of a new year. The forever hope of things being better. Things will be better, it always feels that way, even this year. So here we are sending some good vibes your way )))))

Your buddies,

Holly and Bill

What a Difference a Note Makes (24 little half tones )

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Greetings Fine Folks!

Shirley Granger Album Cover

We used to do that tune, “What a Difference a Day Made” as a nice bright samba cookin’ along at about 120 bpm. I also sang it in the present tense, using “makes” rather than “made” it seemed more vivid that way somehow. Shirley Granger was the first performer I worked with who did the tune that way and it just stuck. Shirley’s band performed all over Vancouver in the 70’s along with Clive Guard and Gary O’Bray.  We played places like the International Plaza, the Cave, and all over Gastown. Shirley had a larger than life pirate-like steel-hulled sailboat with her husband Alex called the Black Eyes, famous for its wild parties. Many a fond memory of Shirley, our gigs together and all the fun in between.

Hurtling from the disco era into the present, Bill and I have been busy creating our latest labour of love. It’s a collection of Twenty Interesting Pieces for the Contemporary Pianist with lots of beauty and character and treasures for the ear. For example, we had just finished one of our new pieces and suddenly found ourselves singing and dancing ‘What a difference a note makes – twenty four little half tones…’all over the living room. Stay tuned for more on these tunes!

SPRING!Spring starts making her entrance long before the calendar says it’s official and proper to be Spring, eh? It’s undeniable, unstoppable, and the most welcome thing in the world. A signal that maybe the cosmos does care about us, after all. Climate change notwithstanding, is it wrong to enjoy some early warmth in February and March?

 

Kozmik Dancing September 16!

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Yes Friends,

A thrilling dance experience can be yours this weekend! I’ve written a bunch of new music for the Kozmik Keyboard to accompany YOU, while Jacob Larmour speaks inspirationally, and you, of course, dance.

Rain or shine 2-6 pm @ Davie and Bute st. You know, the rainbow walk! Jacob Larmour and I will be on from 3:30 – 4:30 for a fascinating guided experience of the human story.  Not to be missed!

I just discovered the bass function on my Kozmik Keyboard 🎹 ✈️ 🗽

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Here I am playing a new tune called ‘Reunion.’ I just discovered the bass function on my Kozmik Keyboard – super fun. I may have overdone it though, ‘cos the arpeggiator broke shortly after making this little video.  hmm…

Please enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

Horns at the Atrium – July 22 – 5pm

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Standing in the echoing expanse that is the atrium in the heart of downtown… 

      notes float…

                      quivering quavers…       and semi-quavers…         and demi-semi-quavers until a trill fills the sonorous soundscape….         and then a saxophone…

     deep drone from the trombones… Ellen and Andrews’ auditory ovation to the next wash of sound to gently caress your malleus, incus and stirrup to pure ecstasy! 

Will you please join us tomorrow?

2-4 open rehearsal, 5-6 show
SFU Woodwards Atrium (London Drugs)

   ….here is a harmonious historical recollection of last year’s happening…

 

 

HRO-Atrium-Voices-Poster-2018-Digital

Costa Rica Chronicles🍃🌎🍌🚸

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As I sit around here twiddling my thumbs still waiting to be over the whole concussion thing…I came across an interesting envelope in my desk. “Hols Costa Rica memories,” in my mother’s handwriting no less. Bless her dear heart! I wrote and played a lot while I was living up in that incredible location, on the Continental divide, Monteverde, C.R.

“I wasn’t sure if I should really mention anything…but a large ape has been coming to me out of the forest, almost nightly, and for some time now. What I like so much about him  is not having to deal with the whole Spanish thing. What is Spanish anyway? you put an ‘ito’ or an ‘a’ or an ‘o,’ or sometimes a ‘dad’ at the end of English word, and that’s Spanish,  pretty much. True there are occasional surprises, like the word “banano.” But think about it, of course a banana is male. Frank and I (he’s so wonderfully direct) often enjoy a kilo or two of bananos together, all in good fun. The locals here prefer them nice and ripe and even feed bananos to their horses.

Then there’s the pig farm down in the valley. I had to go down there to check it out. It’s actually more like a concentration camp. Barbed wire, large grey windowless buildings, dour looking men in gumboots and the cries of the damned, that’s what. I’m so glad I stopped eating bacon. I’ll occasionally get a good whiff of pig shit up here but I still tell  myself it’s paradise.”

here’s a video of a horse eating a banana

banano eating horse

First Snow on Cypress

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Ok – it’s actually the second snow…but it’s SNOW! and it’s still magical and awesome…especially through the eyes of my young Mexican neighbor across the lane who saw snow for the very first time TODAY.  He is about four…I didn’t see him try and melt it on his tongue though…I’ll have to tell him about that one…and snow angels, snowballs, skiing and the whole glorious business.

Do you like my little tune?

Let me know!

🙂

Holly

 

 

 

 

 

Come to Spacious Music at the Atrium September 24!

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Oh yessss…if you couldn’t make it to the June 25 Concert ~ now’s your chance…incredible new music from John Korsrud, Hugh Fraser, Bill Runge and moi! It’s a free concert in a public space…fabulous musicians…super music in the great spaciousness…

 

See you there!

 

Here’s a sneak peek at my co-write with Bill Runge, “Lagoon”, which will have its second performance on September 24.

Look UP in the night sky this weekend!

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This weekend brings the peak of Summer! We’ve had the fireworks, we’ve had Pride and now the great celestial Perseid meteor show takes over…up to eighty meteors an hour and fireballs will be somehow silently whooshing over our heads this very weekend! I kid you not! So get away from the city lights if you can and enjoy the greatest show off earth…

“great fireballs of fire!” – A guide to the Perseid Meteor Shower

Actually it’s a lot more mellow than that 🙂 Here’s our tune “River of Stars” for your starry enjoyment over this beautiful Summer weekend…how I wish Summer could last forever!

 

Now for a haiku by Mike:

rainless sky for weeks

photons drizzle down in the

perseid shower

 

 

 

Birdsong🐦 & Blossoms🌸

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A warbling we go! Here by Stanley Park I am surrounded by blossoms…all the shades and varieties of cherries, magnolias, and the early purple azaleas. This year, for some reason, I’m really getting the fragrance of the blossoms more than usual. Even if they are lying on the ground. But the best experience is standing under an old cherry tree with a great canopy of blossoms overhead and standing or sitting or simply *being* – and simply breathing it in – heaven on earth? And birdsong fills the air! I find myself running out to the balcony, zoom recorder in hand, trying to capture the fleeting notes.

There was a sudden bash against my window – alas a little bird had flown into it… putting my hands around it, I gave it a little qi treatment. I thought it was a goner, but amazingly twenty minutes later it flew away!

IMG_2878.JPG

According to the Stokes Guide to Birds, the orange crowned warbler is “very drab” and the Peterson Field Guide Series is equally unimpressed talking about its “lack of wing bars” and saying its song is a “weak colourless trill, dropping in energy at the end.” I wonder if we’re talking about the same bird! Bill and I have been talking about notating bird song and I’ll let you know how that goes! My ever resourceful scribe, Mike, has brought the following to my attention. Dear readers, how about you give these a try and let me know how they sound! oh…there’s a cow in there too 🙂

bird songs as musical notation.jpg

I will leave you with one last thought on birds from one of my favourite musical works (can you guess which one?):

One day, Peter goes out into the clearing, leaving the garden gate open, and the duck that lives in the yard takes the opportunity to go swimming in a pond nearby. The duck starts arguing with a little bird.

The bird says, “what kind of bird are you if you can’t fly?”

To which the duck replies, “what kind of bird are you if you can’t swim?”

Click here to have a listen!